Pokémon Pocket Preview: With This New Game, You’ll Have No Excuses Not to Get Started with Card Games

Trading cards first and foremost

Since 2015, and the release of Pokémon Go, The Pokemon Company has been working on the project of making the Pokémon card game more accessible. Initially physical, the card game was then digitized through the Pokémon TCG Live application: a modernized game that uses the same rules as the “real” game. But it fails to attract its audience, probably due to too many cards and too long texts. Secondly, it can also be blamed for displaying a less frenetic tempo than its competitors.

It is to overcome all this that The Pokemon Company announced, at the beginning of spring, Pokémon TCG Pocket. An application which, on paper, is supposed to console those who shun the original card game and those discouraged by all that there is to catch up. The presentation trailer of Pocket emphasizes the collection aspect. Every twelve hours, players collect a pack (or booster) that they can open. Each includes 5 cards, with three different boosters per expansion. If they are new, the recovered cards are added to the collection.

The Pokémon Company has made a point of recreating the physical sensations of card collecting in this digital application. The opening of the boosters, with the gesture of tearing the pack and the noise that accompanies it, evokes the original. The same goes for the thumb gesture to reveal the cards one by one adds to this immersive experience. As with video games, I quickly found this fever of collecting again. My digital binder, like the Pokédex, fills up as I go. There are even different themes for these binders, enough to titillate the most ardent collectors!

What often seduces card game fans is the moment before opening a booster. What will it have in store for us? A feeling that we also find with a feature exclusive to Pokémon TCG Pocket with the miracle draw. Once a day, we can see what another player in the world has had in their pack. We then have a one in 5 chance of finding the one we want. To push the interactivity, there is also a trade system that has been integrated. It is included in the presentation trailer for obvious reasons, we were not really able to test it during our preview.

On this collection aspect, Pokémon TCG Pocket does things well. We go through the same states as when we open a pack of cards in real life without it being time-consuming. Unless we decide to admire our new cards more closely, in which case a kind of museum has been integrated. A mandatory addition but which remains well done.

A Pokémon fan since I was a kid, I didn’t jump on the bandwagon when it came to card games, which is why I was drawn to Pocket. While most of the cards in this new game already exist, everyone will start from the same starting point when it comes out on October 30. But it’s because Pocket’s upcoming expansions will be separate from the physical game and its adaptation that I feel like I’ll be able to get into it.

Pokémon card battles for everyone

Similarly, The Pokemon Company wanted to make its Pokemon card battle system more accessible. Something that can be seen from reading the rules or looking at the cards. We’re going from 60-card decks to 20-card decks; each card only has one attack and the entire energy system has been adjusted. In existing games, attacks require so-called Energy‘ to be cast. For example, Charizard needs two Fire energy to cast Royal Flambée. However, the player can only attach one energy card per turn to the Pokémon of their choice. This system, while adding an extra layer of tactics, makes the games less dynamic.

In the Pocket version, this system fades away to make way for something more modern. Depending on the deck you have chosen, you will gain one energy each turn. It must always be assigned to a Pokémon of our choice, but the fact that this does not happen through cards makes the games more rhythmic.

While the rules can still be scary at first glance, there’s no need to panic. The Pokémon Company really wants to emphasize its accessibility and offers a whole tutorial that takes the player by the hand from start to finish. To tell you the truth, we were able to interview Ryo Tsujikawa (General Manager) and Satoru Nagaya (Artistic Director) from Creatures. They remained evasive about the presence of an upcoming ranked mode although they know “players’ interest in an intense game mode“and their perseverance, not to mention players already used to the Pokémon card game, makes us think that Pocket is intended exclusively for beginners. Especially since the games rarely last more than 5 minutes.

An economic model far from being invasive

Of course, if there is also one point on which Pokémon TCG Pocket is expected to be very successful, it is its economic model. Something on which it is difficult to give an opinion during a preview session as it can be measured in the long term.

Pokémon TCG Pocket’s business model is based primarily on microtransactions, allowing players to purchase items to reduce waiting times, premium passes, and cosmetics to customize cards. Three types of currency are available in-game through daily quests and special missions, with the fourth being purchasable with real money. There is no obligation for the player to spend real money, as the game is focused on collecting rather than competitive duels, as they do not appear to be planned for the moment.